She says he’s got five per cent body fat and one per cent brain activity. He says she’s a foul-mouthed tart. Meet Faustine and McPherson.

Faustine is terrified of responsibility and never wants kids. She lives in New York filling her time with dead-end jobs and high-end stimulants but when she hears that Beech Wood Rise is about to be flattened, she sobers up and heads home to England. The ancient woodland holds her only memories of her dead mother and she’s going to fight every step of the way to stop the land developers.

McPherson is a land developer. He never wants kids because he believes he’s inherited his father’s violent temper. Having been evicted from his home as a child, McPherson has a mission: to build low-cost housing for the poor. And Beech Wood Rise is his next project.

Oscar, 9, has been taken from his crack-head mum in London and placed with his aunt in the countryside while Child Services find him a foster home. Oscar dislikes his aunt and takes up residence in the abandoned tree-house on Beech Wood Rise. Suddenly his peace is shattered. Oscar watches the battle between Faustine and McPherson with a spectator’s enthusiasm, while fanning the flames of war. Yet he knows his days of freedom are numbered. Rather than go into foster care, he plans to do a disappearing act. When Faustine and McPherson discover that Oscar is not a middle-class brat dodging piano practice but an emotionally traumatised reject who is about to run away, they declare a temporary ceasefire as they try to save him. What they don’t know is: all their careful plans to stay child-free are about to be challenged. Oscar has just decided that Faustine and McPherson would make great parents. HIS parents. Now all he has to do is make them fall in love.

This is one gem that you want in your collection. When an Australian developer intends to knock down a crop of trees in the British county side, to build 25 houses for deprived families, he gets more than he bargained for when he meets a couple of pretty stubborn protesters. This story makes for a hilarious few hours that I never wanted to end, following a ‘I hate you’, ‘no hate you more’ sort of relationship that I just wanted to blossom into a perfect love triangle. Nothing dodgy I promise, the third spoke in this wheel is Oscar at just 9 years old, that no-one cares enough about to find out what he is up to or where he is.

Faustine is one of the daughters of the lord of the manor, her childhood home that she can see from one very special tree that she wants to save from being cut down. Faustine is a famous lingerie model on the brink of a massive campaign to launch a new high-class range of sensual underwear but a clause in her contract stipulates that she does nothing to tarnish the company name.

Oscar hasn’t had the best of beginnings in life, over hearing a social worker talking of putting him in a foster home then adoption. On her last visit she has left behind a bag containing masks that children can use to be able to tell things to her that they can’t as themselves. He takes off into the woods and comes across the demonstrators and mingles with them, until they are all gone except him and Faustine. So that Faustine can take residence in the tree without any bad publicity affecting her contract she puts on one of Oscar’s masks. One of a very strange pig.

What follows in this story is just as much heart melting as it is heart breaking when the very handsome Mr McPherson, the housing developer turns up. I laughed and cried as the relationship between all three of these characters blossomed. All of them broken in some way from the past to present. The story is seen from all three sides, with each of them having massive defence mechanisms that hits back from behind a wall that they build to stop them getting hurt.

Some of the scenes are so very tender and sweet but they all have something passionate and personal that they can’t stop fighting for. A real lump in my throat read that I couldn’t see a good outcome for. I have so many favourite chapters in this story that I just can’t pick which one I loved the best. A brilliant story. My favourite romance that I have read.

HERE IS A LITTLE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alison Brodie is a Scot with French Huguenot ancestors on her mother’s side. Alison has lived all over the world, including Kansas City, Athens and Basque country.Her first novel – “Face to Face” – was published by Hodder & Stoughton and became Good Housekeeping’s Pick of the Paperbacks.Alison has now gone Indie! “Brake Failure” has 28 five-star reviews from professional book bloggers + “Masterpiece of humor” -Midwest Book Review“ZENKA” is releasing 6 November, 2017.

Hi my name is Sue Hampson and as from today I am a Blogger, so here is a little about myself. I have always had a love of reading but it did escalate once I was bought a kindle. I read and listen to about 5 books per week but it is only over this last 18 months that I have realised how important reviewing is to other fellow readers and authors. I believe over time that my reviews have improved same as anything else you do regular. If I like an author's books I tend to buy everything they write, I never use unlimited on Amazon as I am a keeper of books and would hate to return them. I always respect that an author has spent months and months to produce a novel and I won't after taking a night to read it put up a terrible review. I would contact the author or publisher and say this novel isn't for me. It doesn't mean there is anything wrong with it but I have chosen badly.
I am not perfect, I never have been. I'm the one as a child that always walked into lamp posts and fell over. Mum tried to help and used to put me plasters on my knees before I went out to save me the trouble of coming back in . I have 5 grown up children and 9 grandchildren all which seem to have taken after me bless 'em to the extent that they have set up a joint chat page called Ma's bad Genes!
I love reading, I always have but my punctuation and grammar aren't the best but I do know a good story when I read it. That is what I review on the story.
I do reviews on Amazon.uk, Amazon.com, Goodreads, Netgalley, Twitter with links to publisher and author, my fb book page and Independent authors.
I love lots of genres Criminal Procedural, Mystery &Thrillers, Horror, Romance, Erotica and Fantasy. I do like variety. Feel free to contact me for further information anytime at susanhampson57@hotmail.co.uk